American Gods Loses Its Showrunners Heading Into Season 2

Starz's hit series American Gods has already been renewed for Season 2 on Starz, but the show will be undergoing a big change behind-the-scenes, with showrunners and series creators Bryan Fuller and Michael Green leaving the show. The executive producers are said to be exiting following budgetary and creative disputes with Fremantle Media. No replacement showrunner has been announced at this time, and it remains to be seen if this move will impact the Season 2 production schedule.

Bryan Fuller and Michael Green were reportedly pushing Fremantle to increase the budget for the second season, while sources close to the production reveal that the budget was already getting close to a whopping $10 million per episode. After coming to an impasse on the direction of the show, Bryan Fuller and Michael Green both decided to part ways with the series. It's possible that the show's other executive producers, such as Craig Cegielski, Stefanie Berk, Adam Kane, author Neil Gaiman and David Slade, who directed the first three episodes of the first season, could be promoted to showrunner in the second season, but it remains to be seen when a replacement is named.

What's interesting is that American Gods is what caused Bryan Fuller to back out of serving as the showrunner on the CBS All Access streaming service show Star Trek Discovery, since he was already deep into production on American Gods and production on Star Trek Discovery kept getting delayed. Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts were brought in to replace Bryan Fuller as showrunner, but now that he has left American Gods, it remains to be seen if he will ultimately return to Star Trek Discovery for its second season. Still, it seems even more likely that he will turn his attention to Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories, which we reported last month will be among the first original scripted programs for Apple. As for Michael Green, he is working on the Netflix drama Raising Dion.

Adapted from the award-winning novel, American Gods posits a different kind of war brewing, one between Old Gods and New. The traditional Old Gods, with mythological roots from around the world, fear irrelevance as their believers die off or are seduced by the money, technology, and celebrity offered by the New Gods. Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) is an ex-con who, left adrift by the recent death of his wife, becomes bodyguard and traveling partner to conman Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane). But in truth, Mr. Wednesday is a powerful old deity, on a cross-country mission to build an army and reclaim his lost glory.